I Have One Major Worry About Total War: Warhammer 40,000

As a Warhammer fan, I am over the moon when it comes to the reveal of not one, but two strategy-based games set in the world. However, I do have some concerns around both of which need to be addressed.

Both Total War: Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV appear to only offer four factions at base. Now, I want to make it clear that it’s not the biggest issue, but when it comes to Total War: Warhammer 40,000, I am a little concerned. The key is that Total War games rely on managing numerous theatres of war. This alone isn’t impossible with only four factions, but the problem is that you’re going to be fighting the same battles over and over again. 

Taking Total War: WARHAMMER III as an example, if you play as the Empire, you’ll usually have to fight other human forces, Chaos, Vampire Coast, and the Orks. However, if you change to, say, Lizardmen, you’ll be fighting High Elves, the Vampire Coast, as well as the Skaven. It allows for different experiences depending on which faction you play. 

Alternatively, with only four factions, no matter who you play as, you will usually be fighting two factions that you fought in the other campaign. So, if I play a campaign as Space Marines, I will be fighting Imperial Guard, Eldar, and Orks. If I then decide to play a campaign as Orks, then I am still fighting the Guard and the Eldar. Obviously, some of the changes will be based on the specific mechanics of each faction, but if it’s the same opponents each time, that slowly becomes moot. 

There are some possible solutions, and I do not doubt that other factions will be introduced via DLC over time. In fact, I can say it with absolute certainty, because Creative Assembly loves its downloadable content… I really hope any form of gore isn’t DLC locked this time. As I said before, there’s also the mechanics of each faction that could help to add some variety. For instance, there are indications that you can make your own chapters for the Space Marines, including rumours around certain traits, units, and tactics. Ideally, this would also extend to the other factions as well. 

This would help to mitigate the small number of factions, for instance, having to fight a melee-based Space Marine chapter on one edge of your empire and a more ranged-based one on the other. However, the success of this design really relies on these factors having a major impact on battles, and I argue that there are other armies where it would work better. For instance, Chaos could have factions that rely on demons or use cultists to destabilise a planet.

Overall, a lot of this is conjecture on my part, as there is still a fair amount that we don’t know, and my worries may never come to pass. However, only time will really tell, but I will be keeping my eyes open for any news. Let me know in the comments what you’re looking forward to with the game, as well as what you might be concerned about.